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<title>Remember To Keep the Volume Low When You Watch Trash TV at 3AM by Zamietka</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27879725">Remember To Keep the Volume Low When You Watch Trash TV at 3AM</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamietka/pseuds/Zamietka'>Zamietka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gintama shorties [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gintama</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dadtoki, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Yorozuya Family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:07:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>867</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27879725</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamietka/pseuds/Zamietka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Trusting others to help with the everyday problems doesn't come easy; but it's something you can learn, with time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kagura &amp; Sakata Gintoki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Gintama shorties [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895635</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Remember To Keep the Volume Low When You Watch Trash TV at 3AM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Kagura first moved in, some nights became harder to deal with than the others.</p>
<p>On some, Gin would wake up upon hearing a quiet sniffling from behind the closet door, the sound muffled by the pillow, obviously not meant to be heard by the others. Most of the time, he promptly ignored it; he knew from his own experience that some fears were better faced off alone. These days Sadaharu often found his way into his bed for some reason, and he had to resort to kicking the deep asleep mutt to wake up and do its job and go comfort his owner. The dog’s presence always helped Kagura calm down greatly. Animals were so much easier to confide in, definitely more so than people, after all. </p>
<p>And some nights were too much for him, personally. He rarely got nightmares like Kagura seemed to have, but insomnia hit him hard, at times. He found himself thrashing around in his bed uselessly more often than he would like, blinking tiredly at the ceiling, alone with his thoughts and the merciless ticking of the clock. This time was no different.</p>
<p>
  <i>1 am.</i>
</p>
<p>He was so used to killing time by drinking away his problems, whether these problems included the gnawing of the past on his mind or just an annoyingly scratchy pillow. But now he had an actual responsibility - a kid and a half, and a giant dog under his roof, eating away all his measle savings very efficiently. </p>
<p>He didn't really know how to deal with his sleeping problem any other way, but he was not as heartless as to ignore their basic needs in favor of his drinking habits. Most of the time. His liver would be thankful, at the very least.</p>
<p>Maybe he should try getting money off of that; "Fix your drinking problems without the expensive therapy! Get yourself a kid now! ❤". After a few seconds, he ran a hand through his face at that thought with a groan.</p>
<p>God, he was so tired.</p>
<p>
  <i>2 am. </i>
</p>
<p>Tick, tock, of his justaway clock, counting down, like an alarm bomb, driving him crazy.</p>
<p>He tried moving himself to the sofa, but it didn’t seem to help, either, the surface seemingly just as uncomfortable as his futon. Frustrated, he got up and went to the kitchen, bumping into the door frame on the way as he didn’t even bother with turning the lights on. He poured himself a glass of strawberry milk, sipping on it slowly on his way back to the sofa. He wrapped himself back in a blanket, and waited for the sleep to come.</p>
<p>
  <i>3 am.</i>
</p>
<p>As the night went on, in his drowsy, half-awake state, his mind started playing tricks on him. Part of him was used to his traitorous brain; it wasn’t the first time he found it malfunctioning.</p>
<p>Yet it was so easy - to see a human shape leaning above him in the dark, to see people long gone.</p>
<p>It was so easy to hear whispers in the quiet of the night, to hear voices of the people from the past coming to bother him.</p>
<p>At some point, he curled in on himself, shielding his ears from the nonexistent voices, letting out a quiet whimper of frustration.</p>
<p><i>3:30 am,</i><br/>
and the closet door slipped open slowly.</p>
<p>“Gin-chan?”</p>
<p>He simply facepalmed into the pillow at the girl’s worried voice; he couldn’t even keep his problems to himself without waking other people up. He could hear the barefoot steps on the floor getting closer, standing next to him.</p>
<p>“Why are you thrashing around like a gorilla in heat?” she asked softly, with no usual bite to her words. She looked tired herself, Gin noted, when he looked up; probably have been wide awake for a while, just like him.</p>
<p>“Sorry. I'm okay,” he answered automatically, because that's just what he always did. “Just can't sleep. Go back to bed.”</p>
<p>The girl <i>hmm</i>ed at him. She grabbed the remote and plopped herself at the couch in the empty space next to him, leaning slightly on his shoulder as she made herself comfortable. She turned the TV on almost lazily, keeping the volume low,  jumping through the channels. Gintoki let her be, his tired mind drifting off again; he was pretty sure the kid would get bored soon enough. </p>
<p>When he looked up at the TV after a while, Gin actually snorted.</p>
<p>“Are you seriously gonna watch the infomercials at 3 in the morning?”</p>
<p>“Yup. You have a problem with that?”</p>
<p>“Suit yourself. Just don’t try to order any of this shit again.”</p>
<p>The commercials went on for a while. He found it oddly peaceful, being like this; with the enthusiastic voice of the commentator filling the room, and with the sight of Kagura's dimly lit face, focused intently on all the overpriced products flashing on the screen.</p>
<p>He nodded off.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Next time he could hear the muffled sniffling behind the closet door, he would get up and turn on the TV very quietly as an invitation, the same way the Kagura did that one night.</p>
<p>Because some nights were hard, but they were easier when you didn’t have to face them alone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>idk lmao i just couldnt sleep and wrote this</p></blockquote></div></div>
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